Devotion, which is defined as thus:
-Noun-
1. deep, steady affection; loyalty; faithfulness.
2. the act of giving up or condition of being given up to some person, purpose, or service.
3. the act of devoting or setting apart to a sacred use or purpose; solemn dedication; consecration.
Do we honestly and earnestly seek God with devotion?
Is that not what he demands of us?
In Deuteronomy 6:5 we read;
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." HCSB
Do we really love God, are we devoted to him, steadfast in the storms of life?
If we cannot cling to Christ who can we?
Jesus being exalted by the Father and ministering to us in the Holy Spirit, is all we have because he is constant, eternal, personal and infinite. He is the Way the Truth and the Life, the Light, the Word and so on. He is our rule, our measure our standard to which we conform our lives, to whom the Holy Spirit works in us to make us in likeness of. We need to die to selfishness, die to pride, die to our own ambitions, and focus on Christ alone, that by his grace which grants our faith that we may follow his teachings found in scripture all for the sole purpose of glorifying God. And because of that others may see God in us, that we love them because of the love that the Father has lavished on us through the redeeming sacrifice of his own begotten son.
What greater love has a man than to lay down his life for his friends, in doing so Christ considered us friends! As Romans 5:8 declares;
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."NIV
So God in his great love for us, you and me and everyone else, as Christ Jesus and laid his life down, in submission to the will of the Father, that we may be reconciled to him, no longer separated but declared righteous by the redemptive work of Christ. Yes this is good news! And if we think for one second we are past this in our Christian walk we have missed the boat, nothing is so deep, so great, so important as the Gospel of Christ! It should not only affect you at point but daily, shaping your thoughts and actions by that love expressed to us that we in desperate humility, in quiet dignity, in steadfast integrity, love others in the same manner, regardless of color or creed, of political affiliation, of attitude towards us, that we not only love our friends, our neighbors but we love our enemies as well.
Love is the mark, the brand, the badge, of a Christian. Love is the significant distinction that symbolizes, that actively works in us to separate us from the shape and form of the world. That beyond reason, beyond logic, that very love is the embodiment of grace which guides our faith. A faith that rests upon the sole merit and work of another, wholly dependent upon that person who is Jesus Christ. If we have not love we have nothing. But how can we grasp the love of God if we skip past the Gospel? We must hold fast to the Gospel of Christ and proclaim it, live it, speak it, never forget it. Because if we are so naive to think we can grow in relationship with Christ and move past it, than we never understood it to begin with.
I want to leave you with this quote from William Law's, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, he writes;
"He therefore is the devout man who lives no longer to his own will, or to the way and spirit of the world, but to the sole will of God who considers God in everything, who serves God in everything, who makes all the parts of his common life parts of piety by doing everything in the name of God and under such rules as are conformable to his glory."
Are you, am I, are we, those professing, those trusting, those proclaiming the name and work of Christ living up to the standard which is Christ himself? Can we honestly say that we consider God, that we serve God, and make all parts of our life conformable to his glory?
Think about that… I have to say no, but that drives me to seek him more, with a greater intensity, with a fervent desperation. Would you consider doing that too?
Ask the Father to give you understanding, to fill you with his Spirit, so you may be able to. We cannot do it alone, it has to be in the Spirit. Any power or ability we think we have is all of grace given to us by God, in other words, it's God not you!
grace & peace
